Paul “Triple H” Levesque says charisma is the top factor the company looks for when recruiting talent.
WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development spoke at this week’s Learfield IMG College Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. There are other factors such as athleticism and physical attributes, but charisma, heart and hunger are what sells him on signing people to WWE and NXT.
“For us, charisma is king,” said Levesque. “I’m looking for that person, male or female, that walks into a room and you’re drawn to them. That just has that charisma factor.”
Charisma is the x-factor when signing wrestlers, but WWE employs the same outlook when hiring executive employees.
“You’re looking for the people that have the skillset … but it’s funny for me, I’ll take heart and hunger. … They’ll work a lot harder and they might make mistakes, but in those mistakes you’ll find excellence. And they’ll go above and beyond to prove themselves.”
Triple H spoke very highly of the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, calling it the “key to th future” where WWE creates the superstars of the next generation. He said 95% of the rosters of Raw, SmackDown and NXT came up through the PC.
He added that WWE is still looking to build Performance Centers all around the world, especially in the Middle East and India.
“Over time our intent is to build a Performance Center in India and to have people training there and build an NXT brand.”